Toddler with flu-like symptoms found dead in Toronto

An investigation is underway after a one-and-a-half-year-old boy who had flu-like symptoms was found dead Monday morning.

Toronto police and emergency workers responded to a call at 9:20 a.m. Monday about a child at a home on Ontario Street, Const. Wendy Drummond said. Drummond said police are investigating the incident, as police involvement is routine when a child under the age of five dies.

The boy’s father found his son dead when he went to wake him in their apartment at 666 Ontario St., near the intersection of Parliament and Wellesley Streets, CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney said.

Kim McKinnon, a spokesperson for Toronto Emergency Medical Services said a five-year-old child from the same apartment was taken to hospital with flu-like symptoms but his condition was not serious.

A caretaker from a nearby school said he saw the mother of the boy on a bench outside the apartment.

“She was really distraught. She was crying pretty heavy. Then the officer was with her and he took the young boy with him and he went into the ambulance, and I guess they went to the hospital,” he said.

The whole family had been suffering from some sort of a bug and had recently been to a doctor, Delaney said. They were advised to drink plenty of liquids.

The city has opened extra flu clinics to boost their efforts to fight an especially fierce flu outbreak this season.

So far there are 1,018 confirmed cases of the flu this season, compared to just 40 cases during the same period last year.

There have been 14 deaths attributed to the flu so far, all adults and seniors. If this case is confirmed, it will be the first infant to die from the flu.